Driftwood Gallery Series

A lovely person off the northern coast of England collects beautiful pieces of driftwood and when I saw them on her Etsy.com site I knew they would be the perfect inspiration for some totally one-of-a-kind and special jewelry.  My friend, Jennifer, and I thought we'd be making mostly bracelets out of this lot of pretty driftwood but as it turns out each piece has revealed a unique destiny, many as necklaces.  This piece is only a small sampling of the creativity that came out of working with this natural medium.  In this one, I re-purposed a thrift-store-gold-necklace-find and added turquoise and gold wire to complete the finished look.  I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like this and that makes me very happy. 

The Jewelry Bird Copyright 2012

Gronstedt Design

There is a very talented jewelry artist named Anita Gronstedt from Sweden who makes the most amazing leather bracelet cuffs.  My friend Jennifer discovered her in Boulder at an art festival.  She saved her pennies for two months to purchase the bracelet below.  These pieces are traditional to northern Sweden in an area near the arctic circle known as the Lapland.  These Lapland bracelets are hand stitched out of reindeer leather and are of the highest quality and workmanship.  I had to write about her because her work is so special and unique and she does all of her work right out of Boulder, CO.  The bracelet below features an antler centerpiece.  Just stunning!  Many of her pieces are featured and sold on her website at http://gronstedtdesign.com.  She also custom makes these, so they are a perfect fit to any wrist size, hallelujah! 

Turquoise Wrap Bracelet

Well, I said I may never do another ladder, Chan-Luu style bracelet again but these pretty turquoise beads lured me into another project.  It took the better part of two weeks to finish, working on it here and there, approximately 4 hours total.  I am realizing that after being a Coloradan for nearly 15 years now, it is high time I grow some southwestern roots...and style.  These last two pieces are a tribute to my deepening appreciation for southwestern style.  Now if I could just manifest the perfect pair of cowboy boots...see my "dream boots" on Pinterest!  (By the way, Pinterest.com is great fun...I highly recommend it!)

The Jewelry Bird Copyright 2012

The Jewelry Bird Copyright 2012

Chrysoprase Statement Necklace

I finally did it...I broke the cycle of bracelet creation!  These beautiful chrysoprase beads were begging to become one big and beautiful necklace.  I am in love with these stones.  The deep greenish-aqua hues mixed with the earthy browns are really special.  Visually they are stunning but even more, the very feel of them is intoxicating.  It is said that chrysoprase is a stone of love, abundance, prosperity and healing, no wonder I feel like a million bucks parading around in it!  I put it on an extender so I could wear it shorter or longer.  I mixed in some lovely turquoise beads as spacers and added a rich brown leather cord to finish it off.  This is such a special piece...I am very excited to share it!  :)

The Jewelry Bird Copyright 2012

Buy it because it fits?

I have very few hard and fast rules when it comes to jewelry.  One of my rules is that if I find a piece of jewelry that I want to buy but I can make it, then I am required to at least attempt to make it.  And secondly, if I find a bracelet (that I can't make) that actually fits my child-size wrists then I buy it!  Especially if the price is right.  I hit the Nordstrom Rack clearance section this week (at a minimum, this is a quarterly event) and discovered this plastic green cuff.  It fit perfectly, and it was under $10.  Sold!  But really?  A plastic green cuff?  Today I am questioning the thought process that went into this purchase.  I am thinking that I should add one more important criteria to my list of questions...must love it.  But here I waiver.  It was under ten bucks.  So what if I only have occasion to wear this funky thing once or twice?  :)  By the way, the chain link bracelet was a gift from my friend Kristin for my birthday last year, love it! 

The Brandi Wrap

I needed a bracelet to go with an outfit this weekend that I wore to the Brandi Carlisle concert at Red Rocks.  AMAZING show by the way, such a special and talented performer.  And what a perfect date night with our friends, Nicki and Bret, thanks guys!  Casey and I needed that!  So I whipped up this little double wrap delight and am calling it The Brandi Wrap in her honor.  I thought it looked really nice with the feather bangle from my very first post.  I re-purposed these rhinestones from an old piece and wove it into leather with blue-grey embroidery floss. 

Had to throw in a concert pic of Nicki and I!  :)  

Beaded Summer Bangles

I admit, I made the red one last week to have a little something patriotic to wear on the fourth.  I made a silver version of the ruby jade one for my friend and coworker, Katherine, this week, happy 30th!  And, the white quartz triangles I made today.  I have been wondering what to do with those triangle beads for some time.  I've seen a bit of a trend in triangle shaped jewelry in the last year, so it is timely that these beads find a home.  The flexible wire that I used allows me to get these on and off a bit easier than if they were rigid.  It also made it so that I could make it smaller than a rigid bangle since I can mold it over my hand when putting it on.  These are quick pieces, appealing to my instant gratification side.  My friend, Jen and I (who made the "Merry Wrist-mas" bracelets with me last year) are already beginning a plot to make a more stackable version of these for future gift-giving endeavors...hint hint.  :)

Beaded Leather Cuff

Etsy.com is a continual source of artistic inspiration and creative ideas.  I saw similar designs to this beaded leather cuff bracelet on many sites and thought I'd give it a try.  It was quite labor intensive (~3 hours) but the result was definitely worth it.  If I were to do it again, I probably will not use the cube beads down the middle.  They look beautiful when laid out straight but they do not lay as perfectly as I'd like when worn around the wrist.  This is a substantial piece worthy of standing alone or, as you see below, layered with some other wrist candy!  :)

Perfect Pink and Little Leaf

This shade of pink is not only my sister, Abby's, favorite color but just makes me feel happy!  And the little leaf button I found for the clasp is perfection.  Not too cutesy, not too plain, just right.  I used dark brown leather and DMC's Cotton Perle embroidery thread for this project.  I love this design, it is so simple and clean.  It could be worn alone or layered to create the all exciting "Arm Festival"!  (See previous post.)  My sister claims she will be wearing this one every day!  :)

Blog Crush: Meet Inslee Haynes!

I have a new blog crush.  I am not ashamed to say that I am totally smitten with Inslee Haynes and her Sketch Book blog!  I started reading her blog a couple of weeks ago and could not stop reading until I had consumed all 300+ entries!  This woman does the sweetest, most beautiful fashion illustrations.  And her passion for her work and how she arrives at her content is very endearing.  Her "little ladies" as I call them are quickly becoming an inspiration for my jewelry creations.  The night I finished reading her three-year-volume-of-postings I found myself standing in front of my closet saying, "what could I wear tomorrow that Inslee Haynes would find interesting and worthy of a sketch?"  As if it was not already nutty enough that I am having this thought process, I actually answered the question..."I should wear neutrals with a pop of color and an Arm Festival!"  (A direct reference to this post.)  And that is what I did.  White skinnies, a gray tank top and a bright salmon colored summer scarf and this super fun "Arm Festival".  All but the studded bracelet are my own creations.  Thanks to my co-worker, Katherine, for some great pictures!

The Hawaii Wrap

I got together with my friend, Kari, today and for some reason the conversation just kept coming back around to the beach and going to Hawaii and drinking margaritas!  We made these double-wrap-beachy-delights and I think they are totally in keeping with the theme.  Her daughter, 5-year-old Whitney, even got in on the action and made a sweet little triple wrap bracelet for herself and made me a beautiful beach drawing too.  The clasps are made out of a pink flower Lucite bead and an aqua recycled glass bead.  We used brown waxed linen and size 6/0 clear beads.  What a fun afternoon, thanks ladies!

The Friendship Bracelet: All Grown Up

A couple of days ago I stumbled into a little store on my lunch break called The Knitty Cat.  What a can of worms (or should I say "yarn") that turned out to be!  I had no idea what amazing, beautiful string there was out there these days.  I went in thinking that I may find a particular color of thread for another project I am working on but that is not what I found, of course.  I could have easily spent a sizable portion of my life savings in that store but I restrained myself in the end and just bought the gorgeous string you see in the bracelet below.  I love how earthy and organic feeling this is but still modern and clean.  I wore this out to eat last night with my friend, Kristin, and she already requested that I make her three!

This bracelet wraps around twice, the string is a cotton/silk blend, wrapped around leather cord and finished off with a muted-gold button clasp.  There is something about working with string that makes me feel giddy, like how I felt when I first learned to make friendship bracelets as a kid.  But this, this is what I am calling "Friendship Bracelets for Grown Ups"!  I think there may be many more versions of this one in my future!  This looked so nice stacked with one of my "Merry Wrist-mas" bracelets (see post from last December) today that I had to include a second picture.